<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19019"></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" id=role_body bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 rightMargin=7 topMargin=7><FONT id=role_document color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 3/18/2011 9:08:15 P.M. Central Daylight Time, david@davidandersenpianos.com writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial> <DIV>I can't believe that it's just Erwin and I who pluck strings, in the method described below, to assess soundboard health. All this speculative</DIV> <DIV>sorta scientific wondering is missing the point. Good soundboards produce a bloom or a swell, a strengthening pulse, an added sustain, when the string is plucked, usually within 2 seconds of the pluck. </FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Dave, I've been doing this for years, but my "rule" is the 1 or 2 second rule---does it pop at one or two seconds? After 2 seconds is a bad sign and almost always with little energy. 2 seconds for the midrange, and 1 second for the treble. Make sense?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>P</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>